This undated film image released by 20th Century Fox shows, from left, Steve Zahn, Zachary Gordon, Robert Capron and Frank C. Turner in a scene from "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days." (AP Photo/20th Century Fox, Diyah Pera) less

This undated film image released by 20th Century Fox shows, from left, Steve Zahn, Zachary Gordon, Robert Capron and Frank C. Turner in a scene from "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days." (AP Photo/20th Century Fox, ... more

Photo: Diyah Pera

Film explores artist Ai Weiwei's social activism

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Chinese artist Ai Weiwei spent a productive decade in New York, noticed by almost no one, before returning to his native Beijing in 1993. Since then, as recounted in Alison Klayman's brisk, clear-eyed documentary "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry," he has risen steadily to international prominence, through intensifying antiauthoritarian and social-media activism as well as through his art.

Using her own footage, excerpts from Ai's documentaries and broadcast interviews, Klayman acquaints us with the man behind the decisions, an extraordinarily down-to-earth yet cosmopolitan figure, full of mischief, courage and defiance.

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Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

Rated R: for language

In English and Chinese with English subtitles

Running time: 91 minutes

4 stars out of 5

"Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry" ends with Ai singing a little song - minus subtitles - in Mandarin. Those few moments - and a final Twitter message: "Never retreat, retweet" - offset an otherwise bleak ending. The film shows Ai intimidated into virtual silence immediately after his release from nearly three months' imprisonment.

Klayman already has shown us Ai challenging the authorities on various fronts, most grippingly in a confrontation with the Chengdu police officer who had given him a potentially fatal head injury.

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